Cyber Monday 2008

If you like high tech gizmos and gadgets then Cyber Monday will be for you. Great day to try and find more sales out there on the latest technology for you and your family.

Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, is expected to be more promotional than ever this year because of the "challenging" holiday shopping season, the National Retail Federation said today.

An estimated 83.7 percent of online retailers will have a special promotion for Cyber Monday, up from 72.2 percent last year, said the federation, a trade group for merchants, and though many consumers now have high-speed Internet connections in their homes, more than half of the people with Internet at work are expected to shop at the office, the federation said.

The term Cyber Monday was coined after online retailers noticed large numbers of people shopping online on the Monday after Thanksgiving. One theory was that window-shopping at the malls over the holiday weekend put folks in a buying mood. Another theory was that several years ago, when the Internet was just going mainstream, many people preferred to take advantage of their boss's high-speed Internet connection at the office rather than attempt to shop online at home with an Internet connection that relied on a maddeningly slow dial-up modem.

The most popular promotions for Cyber Monday 2008 are "expected to be specific deals (38.8 percent), e-mail campaigns (32.7 percent), and one-day sales (24.5 percent)," the National Retail Federation said in a press release. "Additionally, nearly one-fourth of retailers (22.5 percent will offer free shipping on all purchases."